tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post1516033934587564126..comments2024-01-23T17:14:04.067-05:00Comments on Jaltcoh: Article Skipper: Will the United States stay the world's top superpower?John Althouse Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-81860843398765009572009-09-17T15:06:49.479-04:002009-09-17T15:06:49.479-04:00John, that reminds me of something Jonathan Franze...John, that reminds me of something Jonathan Franzen (who lived in Berlin for quite a while and speaks excellent German) said about Germany - that it's the country where Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore are seen as the leading American political pundits. (He also said some nice things.) I would think that someone like Joffe, who likes the USA enough to spend years there and comes back to Germany's left-leaning intellectual circles, where high-brow anti-Americanism has been all the rage for as long as I can remember, feels himself driven to defend the USA maybe more vigorously than would most Americans.<br /><br />I still wouldn't call it patriotism, but it would be useful to have an expression for that.LemmusLemmushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00917054221547240969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-43227331327553920432009-09-17T14:04:19.522-04:002009-09-17T14:04:19.522-04:00LemmusLemmus: Good point. While I hadn't thoug...LemmusLemmus: Good point. While I hadn't thought of that, and you're right that it makes the wording problematic, I sort of like it and don't plan on changing it. (I still appreciate your pointing it out, of course.) Per your link, Joffe has spent much of his life working in the United States, going back to the early '80s. He's been teaching at Harvard for 10 years. <br /><br />And I'm not sure his biography is the most important thing. Isn't the actual thought communicated by his writing to the reader what matters? I might also say that Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens have written patriotic statements about America. Yes, they're British, but they've lived in America for a long time, and they're written positive statements about America that sound patriotic and seem meant to instill patriotic feelings -- particularly in an American reader (like me). <br /><br />Conversely, considering that you and Joffe are both native Germans, I think it's entirely reasonable and understandable that you'd find it strange to call his statements patriotic. <br /><br />I lived in London for 3 months, which is very short. But let's say I moved back and lived/worked there for many years (which I would gladly do if it were feasible). If I then made a comment about how much I loved Britain, and a native Brit told me he liked my patriotic statement, I might be a little taken aback at the adjective, but I also imagine I'd feel honored.John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-17536874699041900682009-09-17T13:40:52.076-04:002009-09-17T13:40:52.076-04:00Re: points 6 and 7, patriotism may be the wrong wo...Re: points 6 and 7, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Joffe" rel="nofollow">patriotism may be the wrong word</a>. Minor point, I know.LemmusLemmushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00917054221547240969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-80266396405818282092009-09-17T09:07:19.565-04:002009-09-17T09:07:19.565-04:00Whose hearts and minds are being won? Certainly n...Whose hearts and minds are being won? Certainly not an yin Honduras, Costa Rica, Eastern Europe, Israel, China, Pakistan, for for that matter in any of the nations that were hostile to the US prior to election. Bush had actually already won the hearts and minds of Africans. An "Ask Hugo" foreign policy might make our enemies happy but has little to do with with winning their respect.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-7797965521168749392009-09-17T08:24:52.077-04:002009-09-17T08:24:52.077-04:00I think this article could have benefited from bei...I think this article could have benefited from being printed next to an article with an opposing viewpoint. A "He Said, She Said" type of arrangement.<br /><br /><i>People have been predicting America's decline for 50 years, but it hasn't happened, so we should be skeptical of current predictions of decline.<br /><br /></i>Sounds like the people who used to say that housing prices had never gone down and therefore never would.<br /><br /><i>The armies of European countries are no longer objects of national pride and no longer serve as ladders for social advancement, nor are they the principal agents for promoting the national interest. ... The EU takes pride in being a civilian power that expands by force of example, rather than by force of arms.That seems like a perfectly reasonable point, but he should have simply claimed that culture matters as well as -- not instead of -- the raw numbers on the economy and military.<br /><br /></i>I think he missed something on the raw numbers. Europe has huge debts and doesn't have the ability to raise taxes much more. I don't think it could afford a war; also, it tends to follow the Byzantine example of paying off its enemies and delaying confrontations. That's not superpower type behavior.<br /><br /><i>The military budget of China, the country most often touted as the world's next superpower, is less than one-seventh of the U.S. defense budget.<br /><br /></i>Of course in the U.S. defense budget we spend thousands of dollars per toilet. The Chinese don't need to spend anywhere near what we do if they can spend it more effectively. (Where would the Chinese get cheap manufactured goods for their military? Oh yeah, China!)<br /><br /><i>But the point needs repeating: to find profit for itself, the United States provided for others.<br /><br /></i>The Chinese are big investors all over the world right now.Jason (the commenter)https://www.blogger.com/profile/16045360562791361484noreply@blogger.com